But I think check stations are a waste of time. And so do most other states. As IL is one of the very few states in the entire country who still had them (when we did). Poachers never went to check stations anyway. And tagging violations were a popular and easy offense to get away with since day one.

I personally was relieved when I didn’t have to drive 40min from home, in one direction, to show the college kids I killed a deer. Shotgun season is one of my busiest three days of the entire year, as a full time taxidermist. Spending 2+ hours to check in a deer was a major burden.

States without check stations in the Midwest have seen herd declines like ours. And so have the couple that still use them.

Bring them back, and I’ll get over it. But it isn’t going to stop EHD and WAY TOO MANY TAGS…..and those things are what has decimated our herd.

Coyotes….I’ve talked to a few trappers and they agree. It’s another way the state has to cut the deer herds down. I’m an old fart and I’ve seen the times of seeing no deer to the late 90’s highes but that was when the state was working for the deer herds. In my opinion the only thing the DNR has done good lately was not laying off the wardens. Check stations…I’ve talked the DNR a while back about it. I asked him with the computers why you couldn’t check who’s buying multiple tags and not checking the deer in. DNR commit was they couldn’t prove it. So they know they have a problem. Present day hunters need to do anything possible to help the herds. Whether it’s staying on the DNR butt, taking coyotes, food plots, or educating new hunters. I feel the ball is in our court.

But I think check stations are a waste of time. And so do most other states. As IL is one of the very few states in the entire country who still had them (when we did). Poachers never went to check stations anyway. And tagging violations were a popular and easy offense to get away with since day one.

I personally was relieved when I didn’t have to drive 40min from home, in one direction, to show the college kids I killed a deer. Shotgun season is one of my busiest three days of the entire year, as a full time taxidermist. Spending 2+ hours to check in a deer was a major burden.

States without check stations in the Midwest have seen herd declines like ours. And so have the couple that still use them.

Bring them back, and I’ll get over it. But it isn’t going to stop EHD and WAY TOO MANY TAGS…..and those things are what has decimated our herd.

I do agree with you, but it’s also the time the most hunters are going to be out and highest volume of deer coming in to check stations. This let’s samples be taken from harvested deer to test for CWD..assuming the hunter let’s the biologist/college intern/volunteer take said sample. The whole CWD “issue” is another topic.

But I think check stations are a waste of time. And so do most other states. As IL is one of the very few states in the entire country who still had them (when we did). Poachers never went to check stations anyway. And tagging violations were a popular and easy offense to get away with since day one.

I personally was relieved when I didn’t have to drive 40min from home, in one direction, to show the college kids I killed a deer. Shotgun season is one of my busiest three days of the entire year, as a full time taxidermist. Spending 2+ hours to check in a deer was a major burden.

States without check stations in the Midwest have seen herd declines like ours. And so have the couple that still use them.

Bring them back, and I’ll get over it. But it isn’t going to stop EHD and WAY TOO MANY TAGS…..and those things are what has decimated our herd.

Look once again it does not matter what you, or I, or anyone else thinks, but rather what is actually happening. Look there are many hunters out there that feel they have purchased a tag, so they have paid their due to the state, so what does it matter if they report it, hell they (DNR) stop having check statins, so all should be good. That is the mind set your deal with people, and to ignore it is just not right. As the coyotes go, well that problem is going nowhere real fast. To many user groups would toss a jackass fit over any proposals that would work in controlling their numbers. Somebody would have to be either understanding of each other, or certain seasons would have to change, and I don’t see anyone willing to make changes to counter this problem. Remember we claim to be hunters/conservationist, but nobody seems willing to give one way or another when it comes to making changes to our own certain activities. That mind set need to change as well.

“Look once again it does not matter what you, or I, or anyone else thinks, but rather what is actually happening. Look there are many hunters out there that feel they have purchased a tag, so they have paid their due to the state, so what does it matter if they report it, hell they (DNR) stop having check statins, so all should be good. That is the mind set your deal with people, and to ignore it is just not right.” -RTT

Who’s ignoring it? Read the last sentence in my last post. And understand that the two biggest problems we have is over harvest (partially because of too many tags), and EHD. So take away a substantial amount of tags. Now suddenly these people you speak of don’t have as many tags to abuse. And we still won’t need check stations.

Also, IDNR can get all the CWD samples they can possibly want….straight from the meat lockers. No check station required.

Just for clarification if the DNR doesn’t get enough samples from hunters per CWD area the sharpshooters will. This comes out of the CWD meetings. Yes they do get samples from lockers but they need to know where it was shot in the county.

Just for clarification if the DNR doesn’t get enough samples from hunters per CWD area the sharpshooters will. This comes out of the CWD meetings. Yes they do get samples from lockers but they need to know where it was shot in the county.

This is correct. And every deer that comes into a locker is accompanied by a tag and hunter information. So if a sample comes back positive, it’s still relatively simple for the researchers to follow up to gather a time and location for the kill.

I think I am fortunate to NOT have CWD in my area. Not because of the fear of CWD, but because of what IDNR will do about it.

EHD has decimated the population in the area I hunt and it has not been able to recover. I can’t imagine CWD being much, if any, worse than what has been seen from EHD. But DNR eradication efforts certainly could be. Yet we don’t see DNR even speaking of taking a proactive approach to the EHD die-offs.

BW….I went to the meetings and the way I understand it was if CWD is detected it is considered a HOT ZONE. The next 5 yrs the DNR wants x amount of samples per population in the HOT ZONE which has a radius of roughly 4 miles. As far as the locker samples I feel the state as either the time or money to follow up. It’‘s a state program that CWD countries have to live with.

BW….I went to the meetings and the way I understand it was if CWD is detected it is considered a HOT ZONE. The next 5 yrs the DNR wants x amount of samples per population in the HOT ZONE which has a radius of roughly 4 miles. As far as the locker samples I feel the state as either the time or money to follow up. It’‘s a state program that CWD countries have to live with.

That’s the way I understand it as well.

I’ll be curious to see what they do when a “hot zone” pops up in the DNR’s Goose That Layed the Golden Egg…..commonly known as the Golden Triangle consisting of Pike and surrounding counties. Not much is mentioned about the fact that CWD has been found in MO just across the river from the cash cow.

When it shows up on our side of the river, are they going to go in and eradicate the deer that so many people spend MASSIVE amounts of money to hunt? The leasing, outfitting, and waves of NR hunters will get a gut punch if DNR comes in and sharp shoots everything.

BW…Very good point. Money talks. Pike county would be the first major hit for Illinois. I know in my area hunter pressure is way down. You lose interest quick if don’t see a few. As far CWD here are a few more commits. Unfortunately hunters don’t kill half of what they wanted for my HOT ZONE. Plus they took their population count in winter when the deer were herded up. You heard all the rumors about CWD….insurance companies paying the state, meat being thrown out, and how the bait piles are set up. It makes you think maybe it’s not all BS. We asked the DNR about hunters with left over permits do the sharpshooting. No way. I do know this it’s a 1.5 million dollar program and cost 150 dollars a deer for the shooters. Makes you think.

We definitely need to kill as many coyotes as possible. I am going to go out to my deer spot and try to call in a few when the weather gets a little more tolerable. I also agree, the herd is far less than what it was at its peak around 9 or 10 years ago- or whenever that was. All the hunting shows, too many seasons, CWD way overblown to take out more deeerk, insurance, “if its brown its down” attitudes…. Hey, I have a guy that works for me in central IL who feeds his family but goes to walmart and gets doe tag after doe tag and kills about 20 deer. He will shoot any small buck and I think he even got to the point now where he does not even check his deer in anymore because of the reasons you provided above.

I really wish people would shoot their one or two deer, ethically, and then be done. Let the small bucks walk. I would not hesitate for a second to turn in poachers or someone baiting deer.

And another ridiculous thing.. It is illegal (and rightfully so) to feed deer, but yet there are 3 damn aisle of food at Cabelas and Bass Pro… Yes, I know.. its for my “out of state” property or where it is legal…riiiiight.